James LaRue - myliblog

On November 1, 2024, Alicia Gresley addressed housing from the angle of commuting and public transportation. (See Trick or Treat: the Economics of the Commute .) Her points were all well-made, but I wanted to expand on some related issues. At the end of last year, Garfield County Libraries staff interviewed 90 community leaders. We asked about and tallied recurrent concerns, and housing was top of the list. Leaders identified several big issues under that heading: Recruitment . The cost of housing (Garfield County is one of the least attainable in the nation) means that it can be very difficult to bring in outside talent with rich skills and relevant experience. Even if the pay is good, it's not good enough to cover a $1.2 million house. And if new employees have to find more affordable housing in the western part of the county, they may shy away from long and frustrating commutes. Retention . What many employers do, then, is to focus on finding and growing local talent. It happen...

Once I volunteered at a radio station. I read the daily newspaper for the blind. I wasn’t particularly good at it. I recorded at 6am and quickly learned that I need to be on the other side of at least two cups of coffee before I can talk. One time, I ended my two-hour session with the discovery that I forgot to hit the record button. The radio station had a lot of followers, but they were gently amused by my flub. (And now … Yesterday’s news?) Years later I moved to Colorado and wound up taking a tour of the Colorado Talking Book Library (CTBL) in Denver. A department of the Colorado State Library, part of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (a program of the even larger Library of Congress), the Talking Book Library can be found in every state. Its history traces back almost 100 years. It is a magnificent institution. Who do they serve? Millions. It’s easy enough to understand the meaning of “blind” — you can’t see. It’s physical. But even that has gradations...

When I was a child, my mother did three things that turned me into a reader. First, she signed me up for a library card. Later, she enrolled me in the Landmark series of American biographies for children, aimed at kids 10-15. There were similar series: Bobbs-Merrill’s “Childhood of Famous Americans,” which ran from the 1930s through the 1960s, had famously orange bindings and were also popular. Third, and maybe most important, my mother belonged to the Book of the Month club, which resulted in a modest home library. My mother knew what she was doing. It happens that there’s a lot of research about all of this. I often cite a University of Nevada, Reno study conducted back in 2010. It examined 27 countries over a span of 20 years. The surprising finding was that regardless of parental income or education, just having 500 books in the home was as good as having two parents with Master’s degrees. Early exposure to literature boosts the developing brain. It grows vocabulary. It builds empa...

In 2017 a sudden drop in tax revenues from oil and gas properties precipitated a library crisis. Almost overnight, a third of the staff lost their jobs. In 2019, Garfield County voters approved an ongoing mill levy of 1.5. Included in that ballot language was a series of promises: restoring library hours; keeping our libraries well-maintained and in good repair; retaining qualified staff; providing books, technology and materials; providing educational classes and events, including literacy programs to help children and teens learn to read and do homework, train veterans and job seekers for new careers; prepare students for college and careers; help seniors fight isolation and prevent the effects of aging; and finally, to do all that “with citizen oversight and an independent annual audit of expenditures.” I thought it would be interesting, just as today’s crop of election-seekers are making their own promises, to highlight how well we’ve kept ours. Our Citizens Oversight committee, wh...

The Institute for Liberal Values  let me know that were reading my book On Censorship  for a book club. Then they invited me to join them. They livestreamed the conversation with host Elizabeth and Pam. You can find the Youtube video here  or see below.

  (Originally published in Knowledge Quest, May 14, 2024) The problem Across the country, many school and public libraries have seen a surge in intellectual freedom challenges — attempts to restrict or remove access to library resources. But this round of challenges doesn't follow the usual playbook of a single patron filling out a Request for Reconsideration for just one library resource. Instead, it looks more like this: ·        Ten to 15 people show up at a public board meeting and crowd into the slot for public comments. ·        They express (as opposed to submitting in writing) the desire to remove multiple titles, 20-30 at a time. And they request that the materials be removed while under review. ·        They read aloud the naughtiest bits they can find in the books they object to. The apparent complaint is language and sex. The books are repeatedly described as "obscene." ...

I’ve gone to a lot of library conferences over the course of my career. My favorite part is one of the staples: the awards ceremony. Very often, the awards call out the quiet work that has gone on in libraries for decades. The people drawn to library work are motivated by service. So we’ll see the volunteer who has run book sales for 35 years, contributing tens of thousands of dollars to library facilities. We’ll meet the staff member who introduced hundreds of children in her small town to the joys of storytimes. We’ll acknowledge the local business person who has sponsored important programs. These people are worthy of celebration. They didn’t expect recognition. But they made a difference in their communities. Sometimes, we need to hear from others just how important our work really was and is. The Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) is one of the state “chapters” of the American Library Association. Mostly, its job is to provide professional training and advocate for the meanin...